post mastectomy pain sydrome

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fredntan
fredntan Member Posts: 1,821
edited June 2014 in Stage III Breast Cancer

I guess I have this. this annoying pain in my right chest and arm pit has just never gone away. its not much pain, but just enough to be annoying 2 or 3 on 1-10 scale.Oh how I hate those scales. sometimes my hand feels numb or cold.

I've been to two different PT's. the ones her in VA aren't very hands on. the last one  I found was little better. said he was trained in mastectomies. the office visit only consisted of me doing my stretching exercizes and strength training exercizes. and then 5 min of the PT stretching out the arm. and I'm out the door. Honestly how long do I have to do these stretches? Its been since 9-2011 since my first mastectomy. I had thought the pain was coming from the TE, but that came out last oct. and pain persists.

I found this website www.clearpassage.com I havn't called them yet or contacted them. sounds like they don't take insurance. Has anyone used them. they are in DC, Colorado, Florida

I am getting tired of going to new PT's that don't do much. My insurance only gives me a 8 week period to get each problem fixed. weird I know.

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  • Kathleen26
    Kathleen26 Member Posts: 210
    edited February 2013

    I had my mastectomy in September of 2010, and I'm STILL troubled occasionally by the same type of pain.  I had some PT right after the mastectomy that wasn't effective.   When my onc suggested more after I complained about the pain, I didn't take him up on it because I figured it was just going to cost me money.   I think there's some good PT out there, but a lot of it is a racket.

    I've had better luck with doing yoga several times a week.  It has a lot of the same kind of stretches you get from PT, but it's a lot cheaper and you can find classes every day if you want.   I need the structure of a class to get me to stick to a regimen.  When I stick with it, it really does help, when I get busy and go off it, the tightness and pain return.

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  • sbelizabeth
    sbelizabeth Member Posts: 2,889
    edited February 2013

    Hi, Fredntan.  For me, the pain is 100% related to the radiation treatments.  The scarring, tightness, and board-like stiffness of the skin and muscles of my chest and armpit have even lead to a frozen shoulder.  I'm in PT and it's doing some good, but I can tell this is going to be a long-term project of keeping that area stretched.  Probably yoga is a very good idea.

    Some things in life are just not fair.  I could use some hardness and tightness in my belly and butt, but did they get cancer?  Nope.

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  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 7,859
    edited February 2013

    Freddy, I had my surgery the same time as you. My understanding was that we have to keep the stretching and other exercises up indefinitely. Especially on the rads side, it still aches sometimes, and if I forget to stretch it gets worse. I try to do a few of the basic exercises daily, and then I lift weights at the gym 3-4 times a week as well. I use really small weights, but find that the increase in strength has really helped the whole mess feel better.

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